A Vegas Stay-cation - March 20-24, 2014

Ever since January, I have been excited for my good friend Erin's arrival. Back then, March seemed so far off, but the day finally arrived where she left the cold and snow of Minnesota behind and flew here to sunny and warm Las Vegas!

A little background on our friendship. When I was 6, my family moved to Barron, WI, and Erin's grandparents were our neighbors, and members of church. So there were several weekends that her family would visit Barron, and her grandparents were excited that someone her age moved in. So, each time they would visit, Erin, me, and my brother would all hang out. As we each got to be about middle school-age, I would go down to southern Minnesota in the summer and spend a week at her house, and she would return the favor. Our friendship made it through high school, and we even attended the same college for a few years. After we both went our separate ways after that, we still kept in touch. It made it so much harder to visit after we moved to Vegas, but this visit was actually her second!! Erin is one of my oldest friends, and I'm sure we will remain that way for life!! We also have one very big thing in common: Wisconsin sports! Although she was born and raised in Minnesota, her sports loyalty lies with the Packers, Brewers and Badgers. Erin and I often have sports conversations over Facebook, and we have seen a bunch of Brewers games together over the years!

That being said, she specifically chose this particular weekend, the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, to come to Vegas! Well done, Erin!!

Erin arrived on Thursday, just in time to catch the second half of what would be a 40 point (!!!!!) victory for the Badgers in their first game of the NCAA Tourney! I took the rest of that afternoon off of work, as well as all day on Friday, and the morning on Monday, too, to give my full attention to Erin and basketball.

The rest of Thursday afternoon was spent watching the tournament, and then we met up with Robbie at a sports bar to see the night games.

 

It was my plan for us to spend Thursday and Friday at one of the sportsbooks on the strip, but the seats were all reserved for the whole weekend. I should've known. Luckily, we were able to stream all the games on our laptops, so on Friday, we had several games going at one time between mine and Erin's laptop, and Robbie's iPad. It was our very own sportsbook from the comfort of the living room!! This also begged the question: what was it like without all this technology??!! Friday night we met Robbie at a restaurant on the brand new Linq for the night wave of games.

For the Saturday and Sunday games, we were able to get into a VIP party at the Flamingo to watch the games. A wristband got us into a grand ballroom lined with big screens, tables, complimentary food, and fellow die-hard basketball fans! Saturday night was the second Badger game, and it was a nail-biter. The Badgers opponent was the Oregon Ducks (who I am normally a fan of, but DEFINITELY not in this game), and the Ducks had a 12 point lead at the half. I thought it was the end of the road for the Badgers, but they came out in full force in the second half and ended up winning by 8 with a score of 85-77!! Also, if anyone knows the Badgers style of playing, it is rare to see a Badger score of more than the mid-60 range. My hat goes off to Oregon for forcing us to play quick!! Onto the Sweet 16, boys!!! Here is a post-game video!

After the Badger game was done, Erin and I played tourist for practically the first time since she arrived. We strolled down the newest area of the strip, the Linq, which is anchored by the Observation Wheel, and we took in a few fountain shows at the Bellagio.

 

 

We didn't have as much interest in Sunday's games, so Erin and I wandered on the strip a little more, and got passes to the top of the Eiffel Tower! It is always cool up there.

 

 

Erin unfortunately had to head back to MN on Monday afternoon, so I saw her off, and it was a bittersweet moment for me. I am always sad when our guests leave. :( But, I was able to see her plane take off from the airport, which was pretty cool!

As for the Badgers, their next game is on March 27 in Anaheim, and if they win, they will be playing in the Elite 8 on Saturday March 29th, and I will be watching in person from the stands!! Robbie's basketball model has the Badgers winning 71.9 to 65.2!! So, hopefully my next blog post will be of my Elite 8 experience in Anaheim. Man, I hope that happens!!! Stay tuned!!!

"If you can survive 11 days in cramped quarters with a friend and come out laughing, your friendship is the real deal." -Oprah Winfrey

2014 PAC-12 Tournament - MGM Grand - March 12-15, 2014 - Las Vegas, NV

I know that this is normally a vacation blog, but for this particular weekend, it's like I was on vacation at the MGM Grand, the location of the PAC-12 Tournament this year. We had tickets to the whole tourney, and as usual, we were pretty excited.

Robbie considers the weeks of the conference tournaments a holiday, so he had a well deserved half-day on the first day (Wednesday) of the tournament, as the games started at noon, but I met him at the arena at 6pm for the 2 night games. I missed out on the Washington/Utah game, and the USC/Colorado game. Utah and Colorado were the victors in those games, which I was pretty sad that USC didn't win because I had just bought a USC shirt that I wanted to sport (but I wore it anyway the next day)! The first night game was the defending PAC-12 tournament champion Oregon Ducks vs. the Oregon State Beavers. I really like the style of basketball that the Ducks play, and they won that game, the score being 88-74.

The second game pitted the Cougars of Washington State against the Cardinal of Stanford. This was the first time I got to see Stanford play, and I must say, they have the most unique mascot in all of college basketball, a pine tree with eyes and lips on it. Ummmm......? And they also have 2 players on their team named Brown and Lemons. Haha. Stanford went on to win this game 74-63. Yessssss, I get to see more of the tree!!!

The next day, I met Robbie at the MGM at noon, so we were at the arena by tip-off of the first game. Sidenote...the morning of these games, I worked 6 hours of the opening shift, which was 5am-11:30, covering for a coworker who lives on the east coast. Being it was a late night of basketball the night before and my wake-up call was4:30am, I was running on about 4 hours of sleep for this day of basketball, which went from noon to about 10pm. Whew!!

Despite my lack of sleep, I was ready for basketball! The first game was the Utah Utes against the number 4 team in the nation and the 1 seed in the tourney, the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona was the obvious favorite to win the whole tournament, so they won this game handedly, 71-39. I was embarrassed for Utah. :( And yes, Wildcat fans, congratulations for beating Utah and acting so humble about it (sense the sarcasm). And thank you, Arizona band director, for providing humor by jumping up and down to your students' music in heels. Also, one of the performers from Jersey Boys sang the National Anthem, and he was outstanding!

The second game of the day was a much closer match, between the Bears of Cal, and the Buffalos of Colorado. As from what I saw last year, I wasn't expecting Colorado to make it past the first round, so I was impressed that they won their second game of the tourney, 59-56.

 

Before tip-off of the night wave of games, Blue Man Group performed the Star Spangled Banner on their drum contraptions, and it really surprised me as to how good their rendition was! The 6pm game was between my 2 favorite teams in the PAC-12, the UCLA Bruins and the Oregon Ducks. I was secretly hoping for a tie, but we all know that that can't happen in basketball. My bracket had UCLA winning this game, and sadly (for my slightly bigger fanhood of Oregon over UCLA), that happened. The Bruins won big, 82-63 all because Oregon forgot how to play basketball in the second half (the score was only 37-35 at half)!!!! Oregon's mascot is still by far one of my favorite in basketball. Oh, his shenanigans!

The last game on Thursday was between the Stanford Cardinal and the Arizona State Sun Devils. Robbie and I both agreed that AZ St. had the best pep band with an exceptional trumpet section!! Unfortunately, we only got to hear that trumpet section once, as Stanford won this game 79-58.

Friday night was the Semifinals, with the first game being Arizona and Colorado, and the second game being UCLA and Stanford. I must confess that Robbie and I had no energy to get ourselves down to the MGM and cheer for 6 hours, and we didn't really want to listen to the obnoxiousness of the Arizona fans. So, instead of going to the games, we planned to watch them at home, and if either game was close, or if Colorado somehow was going to pull the upset of the century, we would go and watch. Unfortunately, both games were blowouts, with Arizona winning 63-43, and UCLA snapping Stanford's run with a score of 84-59. Robbie and I were a little sad that we didn't see these games, but it was really nice following the games at home in our pajamas. I needed the night off, too, as the last 2 days I was practically running on fumes!

So, with Arizona and UCLA winning the night before, this meant the Championship game was between the Wildcats and Bruins. We finally had a really good game to watch, as the entire game saw several lead changes and ties. Plus, if you looked around, it was like a home game for Arizona, as around 90% of the crowd were Wildcat fans. Now, for most of the tournament, we were able to move around the arena as the seats weren't completely full for any of the previous games, but for the championship game, we sat in our assigned seats, and we were 2 of the 10% who wasn't cheering for Arizona to win. Had there been seats amongst the UCLA fans, we definitely would have sat there. It's not that we are super huge Bruins fans either; we just wanted to see a good game. The Arizona fans in our section were not happy that we weren't cheering for their team, and they let us know by asking us why we were ruining their fun, and that they would have us run out of "their section" by the end of the game. Keep it classy, Arizona fans! However, we had the last (silent) laugh at the end of the game as UCLA came out the victors with a score of 75-71!! Also, the Jabbawockeez performed at halftime of this game, which was very entertaining!!

 

 

We stayed for part of the post-game ceremonies on the court after UCLA's victory; it's always cool to see the confetti shoot out onto the floor, listen to the pep band play the school song and hear the fans chant U-C-Lllllll-A, U-C-L-A, Go Fight Win, and watch the players deservingly act like little boys again, afterwards!!!

We are pretty lucky because last year was the first year that the PAC-12 Tournament  was held the Vegas, and we have had tickets to the whole tourney both years, and we plan to do the same each year that this event is held here. I must say, when the tournament does arrive, the buzz and energy in this city is heightened, and I am glad to be right in the thick of it! Until next year, PAC-12 Tournament!

"It's not the will to win that matters -everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." -Unknown